"How Bad it is Out Here"

One of the blogs I like to look at (you even see it listed on the right) is "Telling Secrets" by the Rev. Elizabeth Kaeton, an Episcopal priest from New Jersey. But a post I read there today brought me to a dead halt.

Its at least bad manners to reproduce a post on someone else's blog, so if you want to see the complete post (and I encourage it), click here. But here's some selected quotes, hopefully fair use.

She received a call from someone in financial distress:

"'... All of a sudden, we were getting these calls and letters from a lawyer who told us that if we didn't have the money by the end of the week, he was going to foreclose on our house.'

"'For $700?' I asked incredulously. 'He's going to leave a family homeless for $700 in medical bills?' ...

The attorney told them that he had just foreclosed on two other families just that week but he knew a place where they could get a loan that day and save their house. "We went down the street to a place called 'The Cash Store'. They seemed to know that we'd be coming. Within 15 minutes, the papers were all signed and we walked out of the place feeling relieved that we wouldn't lose our home."

When he got home and read over the paper work, he realized the mistake he'd made. The APR was 403%! They would have to make nine weekly payments of $108.50, followed by a payment of $805.50 for total payments of $1,785 on a $700 debt!

By the way, how did they get in trouble? They must have been "irresponsible spendthrifts", right?

His wife has a genetic disorder which their children now have. They lost one son to rectal cancer at 21, their 22-year-old daughter has rectal and brain cancer, and their 12-year-old son has colon cancer. And this is with health insurance! Any other questions?

She then called "The Cash Store" and found out that the loan information was true. The person she talked to said that, yes she did sleep well at night.

She talked to the drug store that was suing the man. They've had so many outstanding debts that he, in his words, "had to resort to a lawyer who has been a godsend to me. He's helping me save my business." When she tried to tell him what the attorney was doing, he said, "I don't want to hear it. I can't hear it. I have to provide for my family, too. You just don't understand how bad it is out here."

The attorney told her to "turn your goody-two-shoes in the opposite direction and mind your own damn business. You just don't understand how bad it is out here."

She worked with some fellow priests to come up with enough money for The Cash Store to let the family off the hook (after browbeating them a bit). Good news, right?

Yes, it is. But it left me with two thoughts:

1. I don't know which hurts the most: what these people were doing to their neighbors or the coldness in the hearts as they did it.

2. If it is "that bad out here", how in the name of God does anyone justify the Government not trying to do everything it can to get people working again?